


Année Dans la Vie

by tegdirbk



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Female Friendship, Female-Centric, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-13 23:43:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9147238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tegdirbk/pseuds/tegdirbk
Summary: In which an unlikely recruit makes some unlikely friends, or how Christine Chapel accidentally joined a girl gang.





	

**2253.365**

"New year, new you," she reminds herself aloud as she types out the last entry in the enlistment form.

It's near midnight on new year's eve, and Christine Chapel is alone in her room, PADD in her lap, chewing her lip and ignoring the unopened bottle of champagne sitting on her desk. Not a year ago, she would've thought the idea a travesty. _You don't greet the new year by yourself_ , she can hear her old self grumbling.

_Maybe next year_ , she tells her.

  
**2254.37**

She steps into astrotheory 101 and feels a pang in her stomach. It's a class of about two hundred, held in one of the Academy's mid-size auditoriums, and looking down at the other cadets, she can't help thinking of when she was their age, fresh-faced and not at all gun-shy, just starting medical school. Her life had seemed simpler then, before...

"Hey." A voice interrupts her nostalgia. Christine turns to see a tall, dark-haired girl smiling down at her. "You mind if I take this seat?"

"Of course." Christine gives the girl a quick, awkward smile back and grabs her bag from the seat next to her, and the girl all but falls into the chair. She does it with a sort of nonchalant elegance: it's not that she's tired or clumsy, clearly, she just can't be bothered to sit like a normal person.

Christine isn't sure what to make of that.

"So, what are you in for?"

She hesitates. "What?"

The girl grins like she's in on a joke Christine isn't. "What are you studying?"

"Oh. I'm a nurse," she answers slowly.

"That's cool. I've got a sister studying nursing now, too."

"No." Christine shakes her head. "I _am_ a nurse."

The girl doesn't seem fazed, glancing her up and down. "Yeah, guess that makes sense."

Christine's about to ask _what does_ that _mean_ when the professor calls for silence.

The next three hours seem like the longest of her life, as their professor rambles on --without much purpose or clarity-- about the structure of her class. At the end of it all, Christine still isn't sure exactly what astrotheory is, let alone what she's supposed to be learning about it.

Finally, she shuts off her PADD and takes a deep breath. Only one more class for the day, and then she can get back to her dorm. She can't believe she's back in a dorm.

The girl next to her winks as they get up, but then she's turned and gone quickly enough Christine isn't quite sure she didn't imagine that.

  
**2254.45**

She's alone in her room on another holiday. Outside she can hear the neighboring park buzzing with the excited chatter and giggles of young couples on Valentine's, and it grates on her nerves.

She hates that she's like this. She used to love today.

Leaning back from her desk, she groans and rubs at her eyes. Roger. If he were here--

"No," she chides herself.

There'll be no thinking like that.

  
**2254.56**

Astrotheory 101 is half an hour in session already when the dark-haired girl slinks in, sliding into the seat next to Christine without a word.

It's a little surprising; the girl --E something, she can't remember-- is nearly always here before Christine.

But it's not her place to say anything, really, so Christine just finishes jotting down the professor's latest technobabble and goes back to watching the clock.

Two and a half hours later, Professor Desai dismisses the class and the girl leans over. "Hey. Can I steal your notes? Just from the beginning of class."

"All right." Christine nods, clicking her PADD back on.

"Thanks," the girl sighs.

Christine smiles, then hesitates. "Err, sorry. Where am I sending these?"

The girl blinks at her, visibly biting back a laugh. "Estevez, Valeria. Thanks, Chapel."

"Nurse Chapel," she corrects automatically.

This time Estevez does laugh. "You don't even know my name. You don't get to correct me."

  
**2254.67**

She's sitting at the closest table in the mess hall to the door when someone sits daintily across from her. She glances up to see a striking blonde at least half a decade younger than her. She's a little relieved, though-- the blonde is engrossed in her PADD, hardly poking at her food and certainly not trying to strike up any conversations with Christine.

She does mutter to herself, though, and so through her lunch break Christine picks up a small earful of technical talk far over her head-- the other girl is an engineer of some kind, is all she gathers.

When she stands to leave, she smiles out of habit. The blonde doesn't notice.

  
**2254.112**

"Nononono, it's the other way around." Estevez shakes her head, pointing to the unreadable notes scrawled across her PADD.

Christine bites back a groan. Like that chickenscratch tells her anything. "I don't think--"

"I noticed." Estevez winks to make the jab less pointed, but Christine still makes a face. "See, you're still forgetting to consider the z axis. Space is three-dimensional--"

"I know that--"

"--so you can't chart it like that. It's easy to get the math once you really wrap your head around that."

Christine sighs. "Of course it's easy, when you're explaining it to me like a child."

Estevez laughs. "Well, sorry. I just don't want to fail this project."

And Christine can't fault her for that, as much as she'd like to.

  
**2254.118**

Professor Desai dismisses them for the last time with a stern reminder not to forget everything, lest they fail their classes next semester.

Christine, having heard every possible variation of this speech a hundred times before, can't help rolling her eyes; next to her, Estevez snorts.

"At least we're free," she says.

Christine smiles back. "At least."

"Hey." Estevez pauses shoving her things in her bag. "You doing anything for lunch tomorrow? I'm grabbing end-of-term smoothies with a couple friends if you wanna come along."

Christine hesitates. _You can't be miserable forever,_ she tells herself, and nods. "I'd like that."

  
**2254.119**

Estevez's smoothie place is more like a coffee shop, a warm place full of pillows and music. She's already there when Christine arrives, sitting at a far table with a willowy Orion girl and a blonde girl whose face Christine thinks rings a bell, although she can't place it.

"These are Mero and Wallace," Estevez introduces them with vague gestures. "Guys, this is Chapel."

"You can call me Carol," the blonde --Wallace-- adds.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," she nods back. "I'm Christine."


End file.
